I was studying the 1904 Worlds Fair which was held in St Louis. Featured in the art murals was David Rankin's 6000 acre corn field. Rankin was a progressive farmer for his time out of Tarkio MO http://www.lyndonirwin.com/04rankin.htmBut that is not the purpose of my post.I ran across these pictures of a unique hay stacker. It is difficult for me to see how it worked exactly. Apparently it did not work all that great as I have not seen the design copied. I could not find any patent information but in reading David's history I don't believe he gave a damn about patents and did not consider himself an inventor.

_________________ One can go into a wild country and make it tame,but, like a coat & cap & mittens that he can never take off,he must always carry the look of the land as it was.He can drive his plow through the nigger-wool,make fields and roads go every way, build him a fine houseand wear the stiff collar, and yet he will always look like the grass where the buffalo have eaten and smell of the new ground he has trod.

Looks like the 2 mules in the first picture are pulling the hay up and over on the stack. I remember my Grandmother talking about when she used to "handle" the mule on the stacker when helping do hay in the neighborhood. Grandad never did have a tractor, after he had heat stroke and his health was failing, his brother let him use a Farmall B for some work on his farm for several years. Grandad had 2 teams of horses and Grandma had a team of mules that sold on their farm sale, no tractor equipment so I don't know what he did with the B unless he got equipment from Uncle Homer. Sale bill listed a horse mower, a buck rake, a planter, horse drawn hay rack and a double wagon box. I think the double wagon box exchanged for the hay rack when he hand shelled corn and when going to town. Grandad never owned land, always rented, moved near every year until the kids got in school. Sale bill listed a milxs cow, a boar, 2 sows, a "litter of pigs", 20 chickens and assorted harness. And "near all the household furnishings". Granddad never had a job in Kansas, he had his place and helped as a farmhand, mostly in return to get his crops harvested. Wheat, corn and sorghum as cash crops and the hay for his own use. Usually a 1/4 section. Grandma said they left Kansas wit the dining table, 2 bed frames, a trunk filled with clothes and "the red box" filled with "oil lamps" bedding and pictures, "chairs tied on the side racks". Grandma said Grandad was concerned about getting over the mountains with the old Chivy pickup.

As a kid Grandma talked a lot about how they farmed but it was so different than what we had on a dairy in Oregon in the 60's. Even now I wouldn't know about a lot of this old equipment without the internet. Farming in Nebraska is a lot different than "HERE". Never saw "thrashing" and haying the old way until I was in my 40's going to "shows". I bought, fixed up and sold horse drawn equipment (yard art, fence row scrap) because I could make good money on it as a kid and into the early 80's but had very little interest in it. (Hippies and "draft horses" and the auction yard) McMinnville Auction Yard had a huge "draft horse sale" in the big city of Eugene Oregon. Part of Lynn Millers' Small Farmers Journal. My Brother was the Auctioneer there and I worked a lot of the sales. It was a great winter deal, repair it and sell at the spring sale, until they moved it east of the mountains to Sisters Oregon. Now that it is all gone, I find it interesting how it worked and how the farmers got the work done, back then....James

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